Abstract This paper presents an analysis of rainfall data based on the radar echoes collected in the vicinity of Darwin, Australia, during the special observation periods in 1988. The Darwin rainfall data are available in the form of hourly averaged grids of size 141 × 141 with an areal resolution of 2 km × 2 km. The data are available for approximately 19 days in the first subset and for 22 days in the second. Since the rainfall data were taken over both the land and the ocean, separate analyses were performed for land and ocean surfaces; thus, three univariate time series (for land, ocean, and combination) are presented for each set. Time series analysis was performed in both time and frequency domains, and both the correlogram and periodogram showed the presence of a strong diurnal cycle in all the time series. Considerable variations can be seen in the diurnal cycles of these time series. To analyze the effect of the diurnal cycle on the sampling errors, flush visits of idealized satellites were simul...


The possibility of modifications on general relativity is investigated. We propose an alternative theory of gravity constructed with the combination of Rastall and Rainbow theories. The hydrostatic equilibrium equations are obtained in order to test the new theory in neutron stars, whose mass-radius diagrams are obtained using modern equations of state of nuclear matter derived from relativistic mean field models and compared with the ones computed by the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equations. We conclude that substantial modifications are obtained even for very small alterations on the two free parameters, making the reproduction of astrophysical observations an easy task.


Commerce is a rapidly emerging application area of ubiquitous computing. Electronic commerce (e-commerce), mobile commerce (m-commerce) and ubiquitous commerce (u-commerce) are based not only on developments pertaining to the Internet compound, but also on prior technological and organizational innovations arising from the combination of telecommunications and organizational computing. A ubiquitous commerce is a service requested according to the customer's personal profile, which typically include individual preferences, keeping the technical constraints of mobile device in use and the context of operating environment using recommender system. In ubiquitous environment, a recommender system is an important key role that is used to provide suitable recommendation solutions to the customers. Recommender system addresses a variety of ubiquitous commerce needs. In ubiquitous commerce, contextual information must be incorporated into the recommendation process for offering quicker and relevant services. This paper attempts to present basic concepts like methods of recommender system, issues and challenges of recommender system in u-commerce, context aware recommender system and finally, discusses a sample scenario of recommender system in u-commerce.


Recent years see the more and more extensive application of ecology to social science. This paper aims to introduce niche theory to the study of senior managers, with a view to provide new ideas and methods to management theory and practice. The paper defines the connotation of the niche of senior managers based on literature review. An open-ended questionnaire survey helps to establish the 7-factor structure of the niche of senior managers. According to the structure, a preliminary questionnaire of the niche of senior managers is designed. 138 subjects have been surveyed, and the results of exploratory factor analysis show that the niche of senior managers is a multi-dimensional structure of six factors. In order to further verify the construction validity of the questionnaire, a more accurate study is made on the selected samples of 244 subjects. Confirmatory factor analysis shows that the niche of senior managers is a parallel structure of six factors, including scholarly accomplishment, character accomplishment, competence, organizational advantages, organizational social responsibility, and organization-authorized resources. The questionnaire is found to have acceptable reliability and validity.


The prescribed performance control of a morphing aircraft with variable sweep wings is investigated based on switched nonlinear systems and reinforcement learning. Switched nonlinear systems in lower triangular form are first adopted to describe the longitudinal altitude motion, and an error transformation is applied to handle the prescribed performance bound. Then, the designed controller is divided into the basic part and supplementary part. For the basic part, the backstepping method with involvement of the modified dynamic surface control technique is utilized to avoid the "explosion of complexity" problem. Improved disturbance observers inspired from the idea of extended state observer are then designed to estimate the disturbances and combined with radial basis function neural networks to develop the common virtual control laws. Moreover, by using the error variables defined in the backstepping design, the reinforcement learning–based supplementary part controller is devised with the critic-action neural network structure, which can adjust its parameters online and further decrease the altitude tracking error. It is proved that all signals of the closed-loop system are uniformly ultimately bounded, and the prescribed performance bound for convergence of the altitude tracking error can be satisfied. Finally, comparative simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.


We appreciate Williams et al. (2016) taking the time to comment on our recently published study (Yang et al. 2016). In their letter, the authors question the 'usefulness' of the computational modelling and simulation approaches that we used in part because as they state, 'The blocking parameters used in Yang et al. (2016) are based on values reported in Hilliard et al. (2010) and subsequent publications from the same group.' This statement does not reflect the careful process that we actually used in building our modelling approaches, where we rather considered the full range of experimentally measured IC50 values for flecainide interaction that have been reported in multiple studies. In addition to the assumption of IC50 = 0 μM (i.e. no interaction with RyR) as reported by the Williams group (Bannister et al. 2015), we reported the following in our paper (Yang et al. 2016): 'Isoproterenol-stimulated Ca2+ waves in CASQ2 knockout (KO) CASQ2(−/−) mice were inhibited by flecainide with an IC50 of 2.0 ± 0.2 μM (Hwang et al. 2011), while other experimental preparations measured an IC50 range from 2 to 17 μM (Brunton et al. 2010; Hilliard et al. 2010; Hwang et al. 2011; Mehra et al. 2014) . . . We also predicted cases for variable flecainide IC50 = 3, 4, and 5 μM shown in Fig. 1.' The model simulations led to the predictions that IC50 values above 5 μM are too low to show therapeutic benefit to normalize the catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) phenotype. An alternative interpretation is that the concentration of flecainide near the receptor is considerably higher than in the bulk water compartments, a possibility supported by our physics-based approach (Fig. 5 in Yang et al. 2016) that shows accumulation of flecainide on the membrane surface and very favourable conditions for neutral flecainide in the hydrophobic core of the membrane. Detailed investigations into membrane partitioning of drugs are ongoing in our group. The point of the simulations in our study was to make predictions about the necessary and sufficient targets of flecainide and the range of IC50 that would allow for normalization of the CPVT phenotype since the experimental literature has shown such variety in reported values. When we started the investigation reported in Yang et al. (2016), we had no preconceived intent or notion about the results. The predictions are the resulting outputs of the model, and suggest that Na+ channel block alone is not sufficient to prevent the CPVT phenotype. The critical point here is that the disparity in sensitivity of the dose–response for flecainide interaction with the RyR depends on the experimental approach being used. This issue has been the subject of discussion by others (Steele et al. 2013; Sikkel et al. 2013b; Smith & MacQuaide, 2015). Williams et al. describe their recent work in their letter. It is important to mention, however, the numerous other studies that report alternative data and explanations. Some in native myocytes show very clear effects of flecainide on spontaneous Ca2+ release (i.e. Ca2+ waves) under experimental conditions where cytosolic [Ca2+] and [Na+] are clamped, demonstrating a direct action of flecainide on RyR2-mediated sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ release (Savio-Galimberti & Knollmann, 2015; Hilliard et al., 2010; Galimberti & Knollmann, 2011). Moreover, in native myocytes, flecainide does not inhibit physiological Ca2+ current-induced SR Ca2+ release but only inhibits spontaneous SR Ca2+ release, which occurs in the setting of diastolic [Ca2+] (i.e. 100 nM) (Hilliard et al. 2010). Such conditions are difficult to model using RyR2 channels incorporated into artificial bilayers and hence were never tested by the group of Williams et al. Other studies demonstrate a clear benefit of flecainide in the clinical CPVT setting, but not in experiments with other Na+ channel blockers (Watanabe et al. 2009; Hwang et al. 2011; van der Werf et al. 2011). Williams et al. performed single-channel experiments in an experimental model comprising phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) bilayers to show that flecainide does not block ion current by binding to a site within the cytosolic domain of the pore-forming domain of RyR2. However, other data and the physics-based computational approaches in our paper suggest that lipophilic drug access may be critical and is a vital component of drug interactions with membrane protein targets such as RyR2. The potential of mean force calculations we performed in our study suggest that flecainide concentration in the lipid phase could be substantially greater than what would be expected in the bilayer studies. Carvedilol is another example of a very hydrophobic/lipophilic drug that interacts with RyR2 without blocking unitary conductance in single-channel experiments. Liposome partitioning experiments suggest that up to 90% of carvedilol molecules are lipid-phase localized (Cheng et al. 1996). The lipophilic access mechanism would imply different dose–response ratios and use-dependent features of drug interaction with the RyR2 target in contrast to a single-site drug block mechanism endorsed by Williams et al. It is important to point out that lipophilic access mechanisms have been shown recently for various membrane targets found in the heart (Lees-Miller et al. 2015; Boiteux et al. 2014) and are likely to exist for RyR2 given the lipophilicity of many drugs interacting with this channel. Williams et al. have undertaken valuable biophysical studies using purified recombinant channels in artificial lipid bilayers. We argue, however, that such a system is far removed from the physiological reality and cannot unequivocally prove the absence of a flecainide interaction with RYR2 channels in a native cellular environment. For example, Cannon et al. (2003) reconstituted RyR2 into a bilayer composed by 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoylphosphatidylethanolamine (POPE) and 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-phosphatidylcholine (POPC) showing that channel activity depends critically on the bilayer composition. Another study showed that the polyunsaturated fatty acid eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) exerts its antiarrhythmic effect by reducing the opening probability of RyR2 (Swan et al. 2003). This is important, because the artificial bilayer used by Williams et al. was composed of 100% (PE), but the actual SR lipid content from dog hearts showed the presence of triglycerides, cholesterol and other phospholipids like phosphatidylinositol (PI), phosphatidylcholine (PC), sphingomyelin (SM) and phosphatidylserine (PS). Most of these


We report high-pressure photoluminescence, Raman scattering, and x-ray diffraction measurements on a lead-free halide perovskite $Cs_3Sb_2Br_9$. At about 3 GPa, an electronic transition manifests itself through a broad minimum in linewidth, a maximum in the intensity of $E_g$, $A_{1g}$ Raman modes, and the unusual change in the $c/a$ ratio of the trigonal lattice. The large compressibility and observed Raman anomalies indicate to a soft material with strong electron-phonon coupling. The observed below bandgap broadband emission in the photoluminescence measurement indicates the recombination of self-trapped excitons. The initial blueshift of the photoluminescence peak reinforces itself to the redshift at around 3 GPa due to the change in the electronic landscape. A first order trigonal to a monoclinic structural transition is also seen at 8 GPa. The first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the electronic transition is associated with direct-to-indirect bandgap transition due to changes in the hybridization of $Sb-5s$ and $Br-4p$ orbitals near the Fermi level in the valence band. The experimentally observed Raman modes are assigned to their symmetry using the density functional perturbation theory. In addition, the DFT calculations predict a 27.5\% reduction of the bandgap in the pressure range 0-8 GPa.


A granulated oil soluble viscosity reducer,BEM-JN,for mixed crude oil transported in Yi-Chang pipelines is developed with its resin-asphaltene content and waxing paraffin carbon number taken into consideration and is composed of a tercopolymer of long chain alkyl acrylate with alkyl carbon number 16—22,maleic acid,and acrylamide,an amide of stearic acid and triethylenediamine,and surfactants.The synthetic procedures are presented briefly.In a laboratory experiment,BEM-JN added at dosage of 60 mg/L lowers the pour point of the mixed crude oil sample from 4℃ to-10℃ and its viscosity at lower temperatures,20,15,10 and 7℃,decreases dramatically.In a five day field test performed on Daye-Wuhan branch pipeline 559 mm in diameter and 87 km long at surface temperature 15℃,BEM-JN was introduced into the mixed crude oil being transported at the head station at a dosage of 60 mg/L and its average pour point and viscosity was lowered down from 9℃ and 1059.6 mPa·s to-4℃ and 388.5 mPa·s at the terminal station,respectively.In a further test the oil transportation was stopped over 33 hrs and restarted and at the terminal station the two characteristics was in range-9—10℃ and 411.6—443.4 mPa·s,respectively.


We report electron-hole conduction asymmetry in monolayer graphene. Previously, it has been claimed that electron-hole conduction asymmetry is due to imbalanced carrier injection from metallic electrodes. Here, we show that metallic contacts have negligible impact on asymmetric conduction and may be either sample or device-dependent phenomena. Electrical measurements show that monolayer graphene based devices exhibit suppressed electron conduction compared to hole conduction due to the presence of donor impurities which scatter electrons more efficiently. This can be explained by the relativistic nature of charge carriers in a graphene monolayer and can be reconciled with the fact that in a relativistic quantum system transport cross section does depend on the sign of scattering potential in contrast to a nonrelativistic quantum system.


Residue number system (RNS), which originates from the Chinese remainder theorem, is regarded as a promising number representation in the domain of digital signal processing (DSP). This paper describes our work on optimizing residue arithmetic units on the platform of reconfigurable devices, such as FPGAs. First, we provide improved designs for residue arithmetic units. For reverse converters from RNS to binary numbers, we propose a novel design that uses only n-bit additions. Compared to previous work, the design consumes up to 14.3% less area and provides lower latency. Second, we develop a reconfigurable RNS arithmetic library generator for the moduli set {2n-1, 2n, 2n+1}. The generator supports a wide range of RNS numbers, and enables us to perform an extensive comparison between RNS and other number representations at both the arithmetic unit level and the application level. The comparison shows that, for applications involving a large number of multiplications, the RNS designs can reduce up to 1/2 DSP48s for large bit-width settings.


The electronic structure and second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) property of a series of monoruthenium-substituted Keggin-type polyoxometalates (POMs) have been studied by using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent (TD)DFT calculations. The DFT calculation supports that these POM complexes possess donor-π-conjugated bridge-acceptor (D-π-A) structure, which the ruthenium atom acts as the role of electron donor and the three vanadium atoms in cap region of Keggin-type POM act as the role of electron acceptor. It is well-known that D-π-A structure, as a simple molecular scheme, has been successfully used in the development of organic NLO materials. However, the totally inorganic molecule having D-π-A structure is very rare. Thereby the second-order NLO properties of these POM complexes have been analyzed in this work. According to the calculations, introduction of the electron acceptor leads to a substantial enhancement on the second-order NLO response. The calculated βHRS(−2ω; ω, ω) value of ...


The results of laboratory studies of the frost susceptibility characteristics of pulverized fuel ash are presented. Four different ashes were investigated, in their plain state, and also after stabilization with ordinary Portland cement and calcitic hydrated lime. Measurements were made of frost heave, permeability, compressive and tensile strength, and heaving pressure. Frost heave was shown to decrease as the strength increased and as the permeability decreased. Values of strength and permeability were found at which the frost heave was reduced to an acceptable value, and the relative importance of strength and permeability in reducing frost heave is discussed. The heaving pressures mobilized are compared with the corresponding compressive and tensile strengths of the ashes.


For a successful exploration project, the determination of lithology is crucial. For determining the lithology of a coal exploration drillhole, a non-hierarchical cluster analysis is presented in which the most commonly used measure of distance, the Euclidean distance, is altered by Steiner weights. Using the Steiner weighted Euclidean distance makes the method more robust, thus affected less by outliers. We compare the results of the improved method of cluster analysis (MFV-CA) with the interpreted borehole geophysical logs, mud logs and the traditional cluster analysis based on the Euclidean distance (TCA). The comparative study shows that the new method gives better resolution and is less affected by outliers than the Euclidean distance based cluster analysis, and may give additional information to the interpretation of geophysical well logs and mud logs.


Landslides can be caused by numerous conditional and triggering factors such as the geologic setting heterogeneity, terrain relief, and local climate. The Mediterranean region represents a typical geologic environment of such a heterogeneity in materials and processes. Understanding the complex slope failure mechanisms and mitigate the associated hazards occurring in such a complex environment has been a challenge. Exceeding the boundaries of conventional site investigation, monitoring techniques based on 3D multi-temporal data have demonstrated great effectiveness as a means of identifying and characterizing morphological changes in harsh environments. The current study area is located at the Perivoli village in the northern part of the "Pindos" mountain range, Greece. Geologically, the predominant geological formation in the wider region is composed from a tectonic mixture, known as "Avdella Melange", which includes thin bedded limestones with chert intercalations, flysch layers of siltstones and sandstones and ophiolites. The structure of the rock masses is generally characterized by sub-vertical strata dipping inwards the slope, while the in-situ engineering geological investigations led to the estimation of GSI values for the different rock masses along the slope. Consequently, limestones have been characterized by 45-50 GSI, while thin-bedded interlayers of siltstones and sandstones, with some limestone floaters, are highly tectonized and characterized with a GSI of 20-30. Those geological characteristics produce weak to very weak surfaces which result in instabilities in various scales. In this steep mountain terrain, all these geological formations are highly tectonic disturbed, weathered and are classified as likely to landslide. The intense rainfall not only contributes to the rock mass weathering, but also increases significantly the water content in the surficial clay layer that leads to reduction in slope stability. In the current study, a landslide assessment and monitoring framework based on multi-temporal 3D point clouds is discussed. The conception is based on ultra-high-resolution imagery collected from a low-cost UAV platform for 3D model creation through SfM photogrammetry. Automatic change detection between sequential point clouds is performed in order to capture surficial changes in great detail. The spatial extend of the changes captured is assessed


Ground state counting plays an important role in several applications in science and engineering, from estimating residual entropy in physical systems, to bounding engineering reliability and solving combinatorial counting problems. While quantum algorithms such as adiabatic quantum optimization (AQO) and quantum approximate optimization (QAOA) can minimize Hamiltonians, they are inadequate for counting ground states. We modify AQO and QAOA to count the ground states of arbitrary classical spin Hamiltonians, including counting ground states with arbitrary nonnegative weights attached to them. As a concrete example, we show how our method can be used to count the weighted fraction of edge covers on graphs, with user-specified confidence on the relative error of the weighted count, in the asymptotic limit of large graphs. We find the asymptotic computational time complexity of our algorithms, via analytical predictions for AQO and numerical calculations for QAOA, and compare with the classical optimal Monte Carlo algorithm (OMCS), as well as a modified Grover's algorithm. We show that for large problem instances with small weights on the ground states, AQO does not have a quantum speedup over OMCS for a fixed error and confidence, but QAOA has a sub-quadratic speedup on a broad class of numerically simulated problems. Our work is an important step in approaching general ground-state counting problems beyond those that can be solved with Grover's algorithm. It offers algorithms that can employ noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices for solving ground state counting problems on small instances, which can help in identifying more problem classes with quantum speedups.


In a number of patients with etiologically unexplained visual field loss, a vasospastic syndrome was found with the aid of capillaroscopic local cooling test on the fingers. After therapy with calcium entry blockers the visual field of the patients with vasospastic syndrome underwent a marked and statistically significant improvement. The control group showed a slight but statistically insignificant tendency towards improvement.


Wdwifery is a traditional practice that allows the accompaniment of the woman in the gestation process from the beginning until after the birth using tools such as medicinal plants. In the present study we characterized the use of plants used in midwifery in the municipality of Guamal, Meta department. To this end, a literature review was initiated for the Llanos Orientales region. In addition, semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with six midwives and nineteen women attended by them. From the results found in this study, a total of 41 species of plants used in the labor of the Eastern Llanos region were found, with Asteraceae and Fabaceae being the families with the highest number of registered species. In addition, 26 species of plants were registered by the midwives and the women attended by them in the municipality of Guamal department of Meta. The forms of preparation found in the literature review of the region of the Eastern Plains are very varied with decoction being the most frequent. Similarly, the decoction and infusion by the midwives and the women served by them in the municipality of Guamal, department of Meta. The use of plants ir midwives has been of vital importance not only for indigenous and Afro-descendant communities bu also for peasants who have acquired this knowledge from generation to generation, whether by belief tradition or necessity.


Key facts • For 2019, twenty-five EU/EEA countries reported 3 411 cases of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), 3 246 (95.2%) of which were confirmed. • The EU/EEA notification rate for 2019 is 0.7 per 100 000, which represents an increase compared to the stable rate of 0.6 reported for the three previous years. • Cases were more frequently reported among men (1.5 M:1 F) and in the age group 45–64 years. • TBE presents a seasonal pattern. In 2019, 95% of confirmed cases occurred between May and November, July being the month with the highest number of reported cases (n=720).


The Committee on Nomenclature of the American Society for the Study of Arteriosclerosis has defined atherosclerosis as a "disease primarily of large arteries, characterized by plaque-like intimal deposits which contain neutral fat, cholesterol, lipophages and sometimes blood or other evidence of hemorrhage" (1). This arteriopathy is of major concern because it leads to localized narrowing of the arterial lumen and ulceration of the intima. Such ulceration frequently serves as a nidus for the development of a thrombus. This atherosclerotic thrombotic arterial disease (thrombo-atherosclerosis) is the most important disease of adults in the United States. Its major clinical manifestations are coronary heart disease, cerebral thrombosis, and peripheral arterial occlusion with gangrene. The term "arteriosclerosis" has been in use since 1833 (2). It was originally coined to indicate thickening and induration of the arterial wall or "hardening of the arteries." This term is still in general use, and the diagnosis of arteriosclerotic heart disease is one of the commonest given as a cause of death on death certification. There is, however, considerable disagreement concerning the meaning of "arteriosclerosis." As long ago as 1904 Marchand suggested the word "atherosclerosis" to distinguish the intimal form of "hardening and induration" of the arterial wall from other arteriosclerotic vascular lesions (3). Many physicians still use "arteriosclerosis" to include both intimal disease (atherosclerosis) and other nonintimal arteriopathies. Others prefer that it be used to designate only medial calcific sclerosis (Monckeberg's). Still others have dropped "arteriosclerosis" altogether, and prefer to use terms with more specific meanings. As generally used in the United States "arteriosclerosis" includes "atherosclerosis." However, in view of the lack of agreement regarding the meaning of


Dropping out of psychotherapy among children and adolescents is a significant problem affecting 40-60 percent of the cases receiving outpatient care. I review research on premature termination from treatment and current issues raised by that work. Our research work on dropping out of treatment among children referred for conduct disorder is highlighted to convey a risk factor and burden-of-treatment model to identify and explain who drops out of treatment and why. Factors that predict dropping out of treatment, the clinical outcomes of children who drop out and influences that moderate the impact of risk factors are discussed. A risk-factor model can aid clinical practice. Those in practice can readily test a variety of factors to determine whether such factors predict premature termination. Once at-risk cases are identified, interventions can be used early in treatment to retain cases. Efforts to establish a therapeutic alliance at the earliest points of contact within families is one such strategy. Some factors that place families at risk (e.g. high stress) may guide foci of treatment or initial clinic contacts. Clinical practice is an excellent venue for testing hypotheses about factors that place families at risk for premature termination and for intervening to improve participation in treatment.


Tau‐proteins are established biomarkers of neuroaxonal damage in a wide range of neurodegenerative conditions. Although measurement of total‐Tau (t‐Tau) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is widely used in research and clinical settings, the relationship of age and t‐Tau in the CSF is not yet fully understood. While a small number of studies reported a correlation between age and t‐Tau in the CSF of healthy adults, in clinical practice the same cut‐off‐value is used independently of patient's age.


Vessel traffic flow characteristics and their relations have been crucial research topics for marine traffic analysis and navigation simulation, and is also the basis for through capacity and congestion index calculation. This study aimed to propose a measurement method of area-wide vessel traffic flow characteristics by extending Edie's definitions of traffic flow rate, density, and speed to multi-directional navigable waters using three-dimensional vessel trajectories, and identify an appropriate model to describe their relations. Edie's definition on traffic flow rate, density, and speed are introduced and extended. Then, three-dimensional spatial-temporal vessel trajectories are plotted and a boundary interpolation algorithm is proposed to measure the three area-wide vessel traffic flow characteristics. Two cases are utilized to test the proposed methodology. Results show that (1) extracting and modelling area-wide vessel traffic flow characteristics are feasible; (2) area-wide vessel traffic Fundamental Diagrams present similar patterns with that of road traffic, but change in interval rather than a clear curvilinear relationship; (3) modified Greenberg's logarithmic models are used to determine the upper bound and lower bound of the relation intervals.


Current packaging technology in power electronics is based on assembling pre-manufactured discrete components. Each component consists of a number of parts, manufactured in a variety of manufacturing processes. This has resulted in a diversity of different parts and mutually incompatible manufacturing processes in a typical power electronic converter and has brought power electronics to the edge where it becomes extremely difficult to reduce the cost and size of power electronic converters. In this paper, we present a way to improve packaging of power electronic converters by increasing integration level and using multifunctional construction parts. Two quantities (K/sub l/ and K/sub p/) intended to evaluate integration level in power converters are introduced. Based on these values, a number of methods to increase the integration level are presented. These methods are then applied to a DC/DC 42/14 V converter for automotive applications. Three packaging concepts, namely lead frame converter, PCB embedded converter and heat conductor converter are proposed. They are compared to a benchmark converter implemented in the conventional discrete packaging technology. It is shown that by smart use of parts in the converter construction, the high values of integration level and high power densities can be achieved.


Background: Phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R) is thought to be an intrinsic antigen of idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN), and has been widely used for the differentiation from secondary membranous nephropathies. However, the positive expression of PLA2R in the patients with hepatitis B virus associated membranous nephropathy (HBV-MN) is controversial in Asian countries, because co-localization of PLA2R and HBV antigens in glomeruli have been reported. Case Presentation: We report a case of anti PLA2R antibody positive HBV-MN that was remitted with entecavir after a relapse during treatment with lamivudine. In a renal biopsy of the case, we could confirm the co-localized glomerular deposition of HBV surface antigen (HBs-Ag) and PLA2R using double staining of immunofluorescence. We also could observe the relapse of nephrotic syndrome correlated with the increased titer of HBs-Ag, and the remission with the decrease of HBs-Ag by the change of antiviral agents. Conclusions: Our case demonstrated that the renal manifestation of HBV-MN clearly responded to antiviral agents. Furthermore, the co-localized glomerular depositions of PLA2R and HBs-Ag in HBV-MN may be concerned with the etiology of MN patients with chronic HBV infection.


Mt. Akagi, located in the northern Kanto, Northeast Japan, is a large Quaternary stratovolcano. The Mizunuma Chert Lapilli Pumice (CLP) dominated by accidental lithic fragments had been reported by Moriya (1968). The aim of this study is to clarify (i) distribution, (ii) stratigraphic position, (iii) sedimentary structure, (iv) petrological features, (v) mineralogical features, (vi) volume and (vii) eruption style, for CLP in more detail. We found new features of CLP then, the deposit was re-defined as the "Akagi Shimizu Lithic Tephra (Ag-SLT)". The Ag-SLT is distributed to eastern region from Mt. Akagi. The Ag-SLT exists on the Akagi Kanuma Pumice (Ag-KP), erupted at 44 ka. The Ag-SLT is composed of four units: 1L, 2P, 3P, 4L, with lithic fragments from Ashio Belt. Unit 1L has accretionary lapilli (φ13 mm) in its bottom layer. The yellow pumice clasts within the unit 2P has high SiO2 (77.5 80.0 wt.% : in major elements chemical composition in volcanic glass), compared to that in Ag-KP (76.0 -77.5 wt.%). Unit 3P is Plinian deposits with pumice and lapilli. Unit 4L is Phreatomagmatic eruption deposits. The Volume of Ag-SLT is about 6 km (VEI=5) as the same as the Hoei eruption of Mt. Fuji in 1707. The pumice within the Ag-SLT was formed with crystallization differentiation in magma reservoir. The interval of eruptions (dormant period) was suggested by the existence of the volcanic soil deposits (Tephric loess, so-called Loam) between Ag-KP and Ag-SLT.


In 1970 Vitali Efimov predicted remarkable counterintuitive behaviour of a three-body system made up of identical bosons. Namely, a weakening of pair interaction in such a system brings about in the limit appearance of infinite number of bound states of a huge spatial extent. The helium trimer has been predicted to be a molecular system having an excited state of this Efimov character under natural conditions without artificial tuning of the attraction between particles by an external field.


According to our study of their grains,textures and structures,the limestones of the Early Triassic Yelang and Jialingjiang formations in the Xiejiacao Section of Guangan,Sichuan can be divided into five main microfacies types and fifteen second order ones.On this basis too,their sedimentary environments can be assigned to:Ⅰ.platform margin;Ⅱ.open marine platform;Ⅲ.restricted marine platform;Ⅳ.platform evaporites.The sedimentary environments swiftly changed into platform evaporites from the end phase of the Early Triassic Jialingjiang Formation into the succeeding Middle Triassic Leikoupo Formation.In general the changes of depositional environments through the Lower and into the Middle Triassic reflect a continuing regressive sequence in the region.


A numerical study of the emissions of a four-level potassium atom excited either by a single pulse or by a pair of temporally separated pulses is presented. For a low-intensity single-pulse two-photon excitation (|4S1/2〉↔|6S1/2〉), parametric emissions along path-1 (|6S1/2〉↔|5P3/2〉↔|4S1/2〉) are generated while along path-2 (|6S1/2〉↔|4P3/2〉↔|4S1/2〉) are essentially inactive. But for high single-pulse excitation, the path-1 emissions saturate and delayed path-2 amplified spontaneous emissions appear. It is shown that in the case of a double-pulse excitation scheme, proper temporal separation of the pulses and saturation of path-1 emissions caused by the first pulse can be applied to selectively transfer the excitation energy from path-1 to path-2 emissions.


Coalescents with multiple collisions, also known as A-coalescents, were introduced by Pitman and Sagitov in 1999. These processes describe the evolution of particles that undergo stochastic coagulation in such a way that several blocks can merge at the same time to form a single block. In the case that the measure A is the Beta(2 - a, a) distribution, they are also known to describe the genealogies of large populations where a single individual can produce a large number of offspring. Here, we use a recent result of Birkner et al. to prove that Beta-coalescents can be embedded in continuous stable random trees, about which much is known due to the recent progress of Duquesne and Le Gall. Our proof is based on a construction of the Donnelly-Kurtz lookdown process using continuous random trees, which is of independent interest. This produces a number of results concerning the small-time behavior of Beta-coalescents. Most notably, we recover an almost sure limit theorem of the present authors for the number of blocks at small times and give the multifractal spectrum corresponding to the emergence of blocks with atypical size. Also, we are able to find exact asymptotics for sampling formulae corresponding to the site frequency spectrum and the allele frequency spectrum associated with mutations in the context of population genetics.


The film cooling effectiveness distributions on one test blade are studied and the infrared thermography is adopted to measure the temperatures on the surface of the blade. The mainstream velocity is kept to be 40m/s, and the Renolds number based on the chord length of the blade is 74400. The experiments are done on the suction side at three different blowing ratios, 0.5,1.0 and 1.5; and those on the pressure side at four different blowing ratios, 0.5,0.75,1.0 and 1.7. According to the experiment results, the effectiveness of film cooling at blowing ratio 1.0 is the best, while the optimal on the pressure side is at blowing ratio 0.5.


To solve the no-wait flexible flow shop scheduling problem with makespan criterion,a hybrid approach which combined particle swarm optimization(PSO) algorithm with NEH algorithm was proposed.PSO algorithm was used to deal with machine assignment problem and implement the global optimization,while the improved NEH algorithm was employed to order the jobs and parallel mobile method based on the difference value was put forward to get the objective.In the processing of the algorithm,the premature convergence phenomenon was avoided by mutating the particles that were stagnant.Computational results based on the typical benchmark suites show that the proposed algorithm is feasible and effective.


The circular dichroism spectra of trans-disubstituted bis(R-propane-1,2-diamine)cobalt(III) complexes are reported for an extended series of solvents. The observed variations in the spectra of the dichloro and dibromo complexes are analysed in terms of stereoselective solvation at the diamine N-H protons, and also the ion association between the complexes and their counter-ions. The solvation of these dihalo complexes, which was studied by p.m.r., showed a preference for hydrogen-bond formation with the equatorial N-H protons, rendering the donor nitrogens asymmetric and thus introducing a new source of dissymmetry close to the metal ion chromophore. This affected a decrease in the positive rotational strength of the 1A1g {equivalent to} 1Eg (D4h) transition, and a positive contribution to the rotational strength of the 1A1g {equivalent to} 1A2g (D4h) component. Ion association of the dihalo complexes was evaluated by a comparison of the circular dichroism of the tetraphenylborate and halide salts. The tendency for ion association was much greater for the tripositive diammine complex. However, stereospecific solvation was of little importance and the circular dichroism spectra did not show any marked solvent dependence for the tetraphenylborate salt.


Water supply and sanitation are two of the most important sectors in development. Access to
water supply and sanitation are basic human needs and rights. The objective of the study was to
assess the water, sanitation and hygiene situation in Thornwood West a newly resettled farm in
Gwanda district of Matabeleland South province in Zimbabwe. The objectives were to determine
the percentage of households with access to an improved sanitation facility, adequate water
supply, hand washing facilities and households that are within a physically accessible distance to
any water source. Questionnaires, interviews and observation were used as data collection
methods. Results from the study show that only 20.8% of the population is within a physically
accessible distance to the water source and 44% of the population has access to latrines. In
addition, only 14% of the population with access to latrines uses their hand washing facilities.
Therefore based on these findings we conclude that despite efforts that have been made to
provide water and sanitation facilities, it is still not enough to cater for the people in newly
resettled areas. Although there is adequate water supply for more than half the population in
Thornwood West, only a fifth of the population is M l within a physically accessible distance
recommended by WHO. Furthermore, a majority of the population do not have access to
improved sanitation facilities. Hence, newly resettled areas are lagging behind in the water and
sanitation sector.


The emerging field of Bioacoustics has been presenting significant research activity lately, and thanks to the use of machine learning methods, several tools and methodologies have been established for identifying certain patterns and meanings in animal vocalizations. Animal sounds can vary over time in intensity and patterns produced between different breeds of the same species, both for physiological reasons and for different emotional states and needs. Pets, such as dogs and cats, are no exception, thus allowing a vocal distinction between breeds. This article studies classification of the cat breed, in particular on the Maine Coon and European Shorthair breed, based on the public audio dataset "CatMeows". To this end, we employed features coming from time and frequency domain capturing relevant information as regard to the present audio structure. Subsequently, audio pattern recognition was carried out by means of k-means clustering, k-NN, and multilayer perceptron learning models. After extensive experiments, we obtained very promising results, with an average accuracy that runs around 98 %. In particular, time-domain features presented a strong contribution, as demonstrated by the results using k-means.


We examine the effect of changing the energy levels and normalization constants of bound states corresponding to baryons and mesons in nonrelativistic quark models. We do this by applying the transformations of supersymmetric quantum mechanics (SUSYQM) to the potentials used in these models. In particular, we fit the spectra and leptonic decay widths of and mesons by modifying several existing potentials by means of supersymmetric transformations. It is found that the potentials are unchanged beyond 2 fm, and that fitting the widths induces greater oscillations in the potentials than those generated by adjusting the energy levels only. Transformations of SUSYQM are applied to the hypercentral potential in order to accommodate the Roper resonance in the s-wave nucleon spectrum. The quark-quark potential found by inverting the transformed hypercentral potential via a new exact Abel transform differs significantly from the original potential up to 5 fm from the origin and violates the concavity requirement. The potential related to this potential by Lipkin's rule does not reproduce the meson spectrum. As the Hall-Post lower bound is also accurate for baryons, the results of the application of supersymmetric transformations in this approximation scheme are also considered and compared to the upper bound of the hypercentral approximation.


We analyze the effects of molecular depletion on the thermal balance of well-shielded, quiescent dark cloud cores. Recent observations of the significant depletion of molecules from the gas phase onto grain surfaces in dark clouds suggest the possibility that the gas-phase cooling in these regions is greatly reduced and consequently that gas kinetic temperatures might be increased. We reexamine cooling and heating processes in light of possible molecular depletion, including the effect of coupling between the gas and the grains. At densities ≤103.5 cm-3, the gas temperature can be significantly increased by the depletion of coolant species without significantly affecting the dust temperature because of the relatively weak gas-dust coupling. At higher densities, this coupling becomes sufficiently rapid to overwhelm the effect of the reduced gas-phase cooling, and depletion has little effect on the gas temperature while raising the dust temperature ≃1 K. The result is that depletion at densities ≥104.5 cm-3 can proceed without being evident as an enhanced gas temperature or without self-limiting due to an increase in the dust temperature increasing the desorption rate. This is consistent with observations of depletion in cold, dense regions of quiescent molecular clouds. It also suggests that depletion in moderate density regions can increase the thermal gas pressure, effectively enhancing the confinement of denser portions of molecular clouds and possibly accelerating the collapse of cloud cores.


This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Copyright © 2014 Korean Academy of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Cases with Speech Sound Disorders Assimilating Plosives and Nasals to Various Vowel Features


The long range ordering of epitaxial semiconductor quantum dots is investigated using several crystal growth techniques on prepatterned substrates. We have developed two nucleation site control techniques: one which uses localized surface chemical potential engineering and one which uses localized surface strain engineering. We present experimental results that demonstrate the ability to create ordered quantum dot lattices and discuss the different mechanisms involved in the long range ordering of quantum dots. r 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.


New type of nanotube‐based electromechanical nanorelay with first, second and control electrodes made of carbon nanotubes is considered. Ab initio and semi‐empirical calculations have been used to estimate switching time and switching voltage of the nanorelay.


I prove a basic inequality for Schatten q-norms of quantum states on a finite-dimensional bipartite Hilbert space H1⊗H2: 1+∥ρ∥q⩾∥Tr1ρ∥q+∥Tr2ρ∥q. This leads to a proof—in the finite-dimensional case—of Raggio's conjecture [G. A. Raggio, J. Math. Phys. 36, 4785 (1995)] that the q-entropies Sq(ρ)=(1−Tr[ρq])∕(q−1) are subadditive for q>1; that is, for any state ρ, Sq(ρ) is not greater than the sum of the Sq of its reductions, Sq(ρ)⩽Sq(Tr1ρ)+Sq(Tr2ρ).


A novel, highly flexible, and data-driven method for designing compact and efficient integrated optical tapers will be discussed and demonstrated through state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms.


LOF with JB3 activator from fruit waste (salak, grapes, papaya, banana, pineapple and apple) and market waste (coconut fiber, coconut water) enriched with other organic materials (solid and liquid tofu waste) and added with Trichoderma microbes to increase nutrient content and function of the LOFwith pest and disease controller. The purpose of this study is to get POC plus with JB3 activator with the results of a complete both chemically and biologically (microscopic analysis)analysis. The treatments that were tried were A-1 = POC; A-2 = POC plus; A-3 = POC plus 1; A-4 = POC plus 2. The obtained results are A4 treatment (POC fruit waste, coconut waste on the market, tofu waste and Trichoderma containing C-organic 6.22%, pH 4.37, microbial contaminants ie E.coli <36 Apm / ml and Salmonella sp negative, which is qualifiedbased on fertilizer quality standards of Permentan no 70 / Permentan / SR.140 / 10/2011, but the content of the nutrients (N, P, K, Fe, Mn, Cu and ZN) still classified as soil amenders not yet as liquid organic fertilizer.


Although local biasing of components used in an analog circuit is shown to be a very attractive design methodology, significantly simplifying the design procedure (Hashemian, 2005), it makes the DC supplies distributed and often not in desire locations in the circuit. In response to this problem a new technique is developed that in conjunction with the local biasing it handles the DC supply sources very smoothly and transfers them to the designated locations in the circuit, specified for global biasing. The technique utilizes nullator-norator pairs to do the required source transformation. Overall, the technique totally avoids nonlinearity in the operation due to a novel nullator modeling that is presented for locally biased components. For the lack of space, the method is only applied to MOS transistors here, but it can simply be extended to BJTs as well. As an example, a two stage amplifier with feedback is used to demonstrate the methodology.


Polarization controlled Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) absorption measurements were performed on a high quality m-plane ammonothermal GaN crystal grown using basic chemistry. The polarization dependence of characteristic absorption peaks of hydrogen-related defects at 3000–3500 cm−1 was used to identify and determine the bond orientation of hydrogenated defect complexes in the GaN lattice. Majority of hydrogen was found to be bonded in gallium vacancy complexes decorated with one to three hydrogen atoms (VGa-H1,2,3) but also hydrogenated oxygen defect complexes, hydrogen in bond-center sites, and lattice direction independent absorption were observed. Absorption peak intensity was used to determine a total hydrogenated VGa density of approximately 4 × 1018 cm−3, with main contribution from VGa-H1,2. Also, a significant concentration of electrically passive VGa-H3 was detected. The high density of hydrogenated defects is expected to have a strong effect on the structural, optical, and electrical propert...


NumerousMicrostrip patch antennas turnedenormouslypopular in mobile and radio wireless communication. This is because of comfort of investigation and fabrication, and their fascinating radiation features. However, they have fewretreats of narrow bandwidth, low efficiency and surface wave losses. In order to get over the restrictions of microstrip antennas such as lower gain (-6 dB), narrow bandwidth (< 5%), excitation of surface waves etc, a novelsolutiontechnique; Kock W.E, evoked the substitute of conventional dielectric by artificial dielectrics. As substrates has appealedraisingattention. Dissimilarto other techniques, this novelmethodemploys the implicitproperties of dielectric materials to improve microstrip antenna execution. These periodicstructures have the specificcharacteristic of defending the propagation of electromagnetic waves for particular frequencies and directions which are determined by the shape, symmetry, size, and the material used in their building. Few artificial dielectrics structures comprisepatterns engraved in the ground plane, drilled holes in dielectrics, and metallic patches arrangedthroughout microstrip structures. The objectives of this paper are to design, fabricate,simulate and the novel artificial dielectrics structure operating at 2.18GHz and 3.17Ghz frequency and examine the functioning of the circular microstrip antenna with and without artificial dielectrics structure. Those designs were simulated with Ansoft HFSS software. Simulated data were compared and counterpointed. Mohammed Naseem & Rajan Chaudhary 516


An electrode switching device (ESD) is one of the most important components of electrical resistivity tomography (ERT). It is a ligament and relay between a testing circuit and testing electrodes. Existing ESD uses a plane structure to realize the interconnection between ports and testing electrodes. Taking Wenner testing as an example, each electrode needs four additional switches. In this report, a new hardware saving ESD (HESD) is made with a hierarchical structure for a single-channel distributed ERT. HESD has two-layered switches to realize the conversion process. The first layer of 16 switches can realize four pairs of unrepeated connection between four ports—AMNB and four Lines—L1–L4. The second layer establishes the non-overlapping joints between four lines—L1–L4 and four testing electrodes. Each electrode only needs one switch for an 1D test, which has been wildly used in soil science, ocean probing, and contaminated surveys, and an odd number layer test. With the newly designed HESD, three fourths of the cost of hardware (switch) was saved compared with the conventional ESD. In addition, with two more switches, HESD was able to complete a 2D survey. The new two-layer HESD saves hardware costs and shows advantages in maintenance, system tests, and miniaturization, especially when many electrodes are required in an ERT system, which is very common in practice.


The technological process reformation of 1 # furnace of Handan Iron Steel Co.,No.2 rolling plant is introduced and the economic benefits have been remarkable due to the reformation of classification of furnace,bottom pipe,gas pipe,air pipe,etc.


The diploid species Coffea congensis is of interest in improving the organoleptic quality of C. canephora. F1 crosses of C. canephora x C. congensis named Congusta in 3 x 5 factorial design have been carried out. The work aimed to assess the genetic parameters in the hybrids in order to integrate them into the selection schemes under way in Côte d'Ivoire. The experimental design was a randomized complete block design. Each cross was represented by a minimum of 29 plants and a maximum of 55 plants. The spacing used was 3 x 1.5 m. Male genotypes C. congensis brought little Original Research Article Ouattara et al.; JEAI, 43(1): 12-23, 2021; Article no.JEAI.65135 13 improvement in offspring regardless of their insignificant additive gene effect in the hybrids. Low heritabilities were found for vegetative vigor traits DICO, GAT and NPLA ranging from 0.13 to 0.23 in the narrow sense and from 0.18 to 0.32 in the broad sense. For production, the narrow sense heritabilities were stable during the first three years of harvest with values between 0.23 and 0.25 whereas the broad sense heritability was irregular. The estimation GCA and SCA showed that all the traits except RCAR had ratio between both effects above 1. The study of correlations between traits showed insignificant correlations between production and vegetative traits, with coefficients below 0.30. However, The selection of 83 high-producing trees from 14 out of 15 studied families make it possible to create good vegetative trees linked to high yield.


Abstract In this study, the extent and distribution of visual and morphological characteristics and diversity based on seven origin sites for 37 chaste tree (Vitex agnus‐castus) genotypes selected from the east coast of Antalya Province (southern Anatolia, Turkey) were determined. Plant size, growth habit, and flower colour were used as visual characteristics. Morphological characteristics included primary and secondary panicle lengths and flower numbers, petiole length, mid‐leaflet length and width, and flowering branch diameter. Genotypes differed significantly in both overall and within origin sites in terms of frequency for visual characteristics. Similar large diversities were recorded between and within origin sites for morphological characteristics. Pearson's coefficients revealed that there were several significant and positive correlations between morphological characteristics of V. agnus‐castus genotypes. Cluster and principal component analyses based on means of genotypes for morphological characteristics confirmed large variations between V. agnus‐castus genotypes.


This letter presents a four-way power combined <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$D$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band power amplifier (PA) in 0.13-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> SiGe technology. The conventional cascode topology is modified by adding an additional interstage network between the common-emitter (CE) and common-base (CB) devices. Further techniques, such as power combining and adaptive bias circuits, are implemented to boost the power generation and the efficiency of the amplifier. The realized PA exhibits a saturated output power of 19.6 dBm with a maximum power-added-efficiency (PAE) of 9.5% at 130 GHz, which is a leading-edge performance among the reported silicon (Si) <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$D$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band PAs in similar technologies. The small-signal gain peaks at 16 dB and the PA has a 3-dB bandwidth of 18 GHz.


The proceeding crisis in agricultural branch of the country negatively influences providing citizens with products of agriculture. In these conditions, personal subsidiary farms (PSF) are the guarantor of providing inhabitants with agricultural products, and play an essential role in food security of the country. However, the legislation not fully regulates formation of the land plots for PSF and their sizes, thereby creating conditions for PSF exceeding the maximum norms of granting. Often such sites are built up with buildings. It leads to violation of productive agricultural grounds, structures of land use that negatively affects development and economic efficiency of agricultural branch. For the solution of the designated problems, it is necessary to change an order of formation of the land plots for personal subsidiary farm introduction of the land management stage assuming the organization of lands of agricultural purpose in borders of municipality. Creation of such scheme will allow defining land massifs necessary for maintaining and development of agricultural production by the enterprises, personal subsidiary farms and peasant farming, and also for expansion of perspective settlements, creation near the woods and reservoirs of summer cottages. Such organization of lands will allow pursuing reasonable agricultural and urban policy that will favorably affect development of personal subsidiary farms and, respectively, food security of the country.


When 1 settled down to prepare this lecture,' I looked at the title I had offered to the Regent of Studies and began to have doubts: was it really appropriate, on so prestigious an occasion, to discuss what seemed, the more I looked at it, a rather naive or childish question? Not that I have anything against childish questions. Small children are neither experts nor are they wise. They are not experts, because they lack the opportunity to amass specialist stocks of information and skill. And they have neither experienced enough nor suffered enough to be wise. Nevertheless, small children do often ask fundamental questions as a matter of personal concern. Theologians are usually elderly, or at least middle-aged. The theologian's audience therefore have a right to expect of him a measure of scholarly expertise: they are entitled to assume that he knows a number of things that other people either do not know or have forgotten. Moreover, the theologian's audience also have a right to expect of him a measure of that wisdom which is the fruit of experience and suffering. (The fact that, on both counts, the audience will often be disappointed does not render their expectations the less legitimate.) It is, I believe, part of the theologian's responsibility, a function of his expertise and his measure of wisdom, to try to ask, and to help other people to ask, fundamental questions as a matter of personal concern. There is a sense in which the theologian who is not in his second childhood is not doing his job properly. (And I consoled myself with the thought that many of the questions to which Thomas Aquinas, whose memory we are celebrating, most profoundly addressed himself were, quite properly, childish questions.) As I continued to rationalise my original decision, I was further reassured by the thought that the question I had chosen to discuss does at least seem to be one which is raised by many intelligent and responsible people when they complain that too many academic theologians, instead of budding up the faith and strength-


With increasing popularity of social media sites, friend recommendation systems have become increasingly important. With increasing number of teenagers, who feel lonely and depressed, friend recommendation systems can help in connecting the user to the right set of friends, who may help them to tackle the above-mentioned problems. Existing homophily-based friend recommendation systems that are used in social media does not provide accurate results. There is a need to design a friend recommendation systems that cater to the needs of the user and also help friends to connect wi th each other in real life. In this paper, various friend recommendation systems are developed to analyse the location, li festyle, and personality. This paper is concluded by proposing a system that combines the above - mentioned systems and is planned to provide personalized friend recommendations.


A novel approach for generating a circularly polarized microstrip reflectarray with variable size rectangular microstrip elements is presented. The concept was implemented with a linear feed-horn illuminating microstrip dipoles which are arranged in a non-overlapping perpendicular configuration in the lower Ka-band (20 GHz) and as crosses (overlapping dipoles) in the upper Ka-band (30 GHz). Experimental results indicated that the perpendicular CP array had a peak efficiency of 31.2% with a 3 dB Axial Ratio bandwidth of 6%. In addition, we observed that both LP and CP could be achieved by simply changing the orientation of the feed-horn with respect to the reflectarray elements.


Objective:  To identify the prevalence of maxillofacial injuries resulting from interpersonal violence in Brazilian children and adolescents.  Material and Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted at a Center of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Dentistry with a sample of 335 medical reports of victims aged up to 19 years. Variables involved sex and age group, perpetrator, occurrence of the event, characterization of injuries, presence of maxillofacial injuries, type of tissue involvement, and injuries in the oral cavity. Data were analyzed using descriptive, and the Chi-square was used for categorical data .  Results: Most victims were female (60.3%) and aged 15-19 years (57.6%). Aggressions occurred at home (50.6%), in the evening (39.5%) and involved perpetrators known to the victim (91.5%). Most victims had multiple injuries (75.8%), involving up to three regions of the body (93.4%). Injuries with blunt objects were the most frequent (86.2%). The prevalence of maxillofacial injuries was 36.7%, with low involvement of the oral cavity (8.4%). A significant association between the presence of injuries on the face and variables "perpetrator" (p=0.015) and "number of injuries" (p=0.006) was observed .  Conclusion:  Female adolescents were the main victims of physical violence, with repercussions in different regions of the body. The prevalence of maxillofacial injuries was high, although with little involvement of oral cavity structures.


Abstract. Popper's falsificationism is frequently referred to as a general normative reference system in phylogenetics. Referring to falsificationism, phylogeneticists have made four central claims, including that frequency probabilities (1) cannot be used for inferring degrees of corroboration and (2) cannot be used in phylogenetics because phylogeny is a unique process, (3) likelihood methods represent verificationist approaches, and (4) the congruence test is a Popperian test. However, these claims are inconsistent with Popper's theory. Moreover, phylogeneticists have proposed four strategies for dealing with the unfalsifiability of cladograms, including (1) interpreting re-interpretations of putative synapomorphy as homoplasy as Popperian ad hoc manoeuvres, (2) decoupling corroboration from falsification, (3) interpreting the tree with the highest likelihood as the most corroborated tree, and (4) interpreting tree hypotheses as Popperian probabilistic hypotheses that do not have to be falsifiable. These strategies are also inconsistent with Popper's theory. Four fundamental problems and a problem with Popper's formula for measuring degree of corroboration demonstrate that Popper's theory does not live up to its own claims. Moreover, neither historical nor experimental sciences can be conducted in a way that is consistent with the principles of falsificationism. Therefore, phylogeneticists should stop referring to falsificationism when defending a specific methodological position.


Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) are two common and important Inherited neuromuscular disorders which have witnessed immense advances in their treatment owing to ongoing developments in gene therapy. Better modalities for clinical testing and improved clinical awareness has led to facilitation of innovative therapeutic research. Multiple new agents have been approved by regulatory authorities. A continuing research on evaluating such treatment options is required more than ever. These novel therapies have immense potential to transform this field and prolong the functional independence and lifespan of patients.


in the exhaust of the cardiopulmonary bypass oxygenator Editor—Nitzschke and colleagues recently studied sevoflurane plasma concentrations during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). The authors found no relationship between sevoflurane plasma concentrations and either sevoflurane concentrations in the exhaust of the oxygenator or bispectral index (BIS) values, prompting them to conclude that 'Measuring the concentration of sevoflurane in the exhaust from the oxygenator is not useful for monitoring sevoflurane administration during bypass'. However, the authors failed to take into account the consequences of Henry's law: at aconstant temperature, the amount of a given gas that dissolves in a given type and volume of liquid is directly proportional to the partial pressure of that gas in equilibrium with that liquid. Blood/gas partition coefficient changes for sevoflurane during CPB were not measured, and may have been considerable given the acute changes in blood temperature and haematocrit that routinely occur. For this reason, the partial pressure in the blood remains unknown. This is the important variable, because, like all gases, inhaled anaesthetics are transported down a partial pressure gradient (not a concentration gradient), and because their clinical effects correlate with the partial pressure. The appropriate technique to use is double headspace equilibration of blood samples, as described by many previous authors, which allows simultaneous measurement of partial pressure and solubility. – 6 To summarize, reporting plasma concentrations without blood solubility does not allow meaningful clinical recommendations to be made. By implication, trying to find a relationship between plasma sevoflurane concentration and BIS with these data is futile. Therefore we argue that the conclusions by Nitzschke and colleagues are premature: pending further evidence, it remains reasonable practice to monitor anaesthetic gas concentrations in the exhaust of the oxygenator.


The thesis focuses on the human resource shortage in farmer professional cooperatives and begins by researches into the docking of village officials and farmer professional cooperatives in Beijing.It includes a lot of investigations and analysis and proposes measures to solve this problem.It is aimed at improving the efficiency of docking between village officials and farmer professional cooperatives in order to mitigate the human resource shortage and promote the development of farmer professional cooperatives.


Abstract The New Curriculum Reform in China from 2001 has not only made new demands for teachers in primary and secondary schools, but also offered new opportunities for teachers' professional development. Many research results show that the co-effect of a variety of factors contributes to teacher's professional development. So for old teachers in primary and secondary schools who are in the late career and lack of motivation, it is difficult to achieve professional development only by their personal power. The school administrators should provide old teachers with external support by implementing the humanized management, eliminating the policy discrimination in schools, building a platform for achievements and constructing teacher culture based on cooperation. Key Words: Old teacher; Professional development; Management


During the development of modern electronic devices quantum-mechanical effects of the carrier transport processes have to be increasingly accounted for. A convenient way of description can be achieved by the Wigner formalism through distribution functions in phase-space. In contrast to classical probability distributions, the distributions in the Wigner picture may also take negative values. Currently, there are stochastic and deterministic approaches in use. In our deterministic method, the critical discretization of the diffusion term is done through the utilization of an integral formulation of the Wigner equation. This deterministic method was studied in the context of superposed quantum states as a precursor to simulations of entangled states. A superposition of two Schrödinger wave states transforms to Wigner phase-space into a system of two particular states plus an additional term, called the correlation state. Whereas the two particular states show the usual behavior, the correlation term reveals oscillatory behavior with respect to the wave vector and/or the spatial direction. This oscillation holds the phase information of the two base states and its period in x (or k), depending on the distance of those states in k or x, respectively. During time evolution, the particular state packets move according to their k-value and the setup of the applied potentials. Especially the oscillatory behavior represents a challenge in discretization and calculation of the transport model. The density of the underlying grid has to properly resolve the periods of the distributions. On the other hand, the memory and simulation-time demands have to be feasible. Additional improvements in the performance can be achieved by parallelization. Analysis of the parallelization methods is performed to optimize the communication overhead between the computational units.


In a wireless sensor network (WSN), the sensor nodes (SNs) generally localize themselves with the help of anchors that are pre-deployed in the network. Time of Arrival (ToA) is a commonly used mechanism for SNs localization in WSNs. In ToA, the SNs localize themselves using the positions of the anchors and the time difference between the receipt of a radio and ultrasound signal transmitted by each anchor. In this setting, the localization process has a high risk of being subverted by malicious anchors that lie about their position and/or distance from the SNs. In this paper, we propose an efficient scheme that helps identify and revoke these malicious anchors. We use a mobile verifier (MV) that moves throughout the network, in some pre-determined manner, and obtains multiple location references from each anchor. For each anchor, the MV tests the mean and the variance of the collected sample to identify if the anchor is malicious. We show through simulations that our scheme successfully identifies more than 80% of malicious anchors with less than 60 references from each. Also, the percentage of false positives is close to 0.


Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) is a congenital anomaly with a prevalence of 25% in the general population and approximately 55% in patients with cryptogenic stroke under the age of 55 years. We present two cases of patients with PFO discovered accidentally as a result of thromboembolic complications. The first patient, elderly with multiple risk factors for hypercoagulability was hospitalised with left upper limb ischemia secondary to thromboembolism through a previously silent PFO. The treatment included urgent thrombo-embolectomy and post-operative anticoagulation. In contrast, the second patient, a 33-year-old men with motor deficits of the left limbs, appeared without an apparent cause. Imaging examinations confirmed ischemic stroke without the presence of common aetiology. The transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) revealed a PFO. The patient was sent to percutaneous closure with good evolution.


The frequency of strong rainfall has increased during 100 years in Japan. And it is thought that events of horizontally localized rainfall have also been observed during recent years. Horizontal distribution of precipitation observed by radar, which is very useful to analyse these heavy rainfall events, should be corrected with ground observations. But there is ample scope for growing this technique. Therefore, we aim to evaluate errors generated by the correction processes. The object of this study is to develop a method of evaluating the errors generated by the horizontal distribution of ground observation site and by the interporation process of the correction ratio of gridded rader precipitation. It was found that the method worked well in order to evaluate whether the location of ground obseravation is effective or not and to decide which methods should be employed for the interporation of the correction ratio.


We consider second kind integral equations of Mellin convolution type having the form f(y) + ∫ 1 0 k(x, y)f(x)dx+ ∫ 1 0 h(x, y)f(x)dx = g(y), y ∈ (0, 1], (1) where f(y) is the unknown, h(x, y) and g(y) are given sufficiently smooth functions and k(x, y) = 1 x k̃ (y x ) (2) is a Mellin kernel with k̃ a given function on [0,+∞) satisfying proper assumptions. The development of numerical methods for the solution of such kind of integral equations has a strong practical motivation due to the wide range of applications, particularly in engineering and physics. The main difficulty in solving such equations is the proof of the stability of the chosen numerical method, being the noncompactness of the Mellin integral operator the chief theoretical barrier. In this talk we address the concern over the stability of a numerical procedure for the solution of (1) in the case where the kernel k(x, y) in (2) satisfies the following condition ∫ +∞ 0 t−1+σ|k̃(t)|dt < +∞, for some σ > 0. (3) Under this assumption the Mellin integral operator


I examine the effect of employee equity-based compensation (EBC) on firm performance and the determinants of EBC. Using two samples, I find that firms have come to rely more heavily on EBC than in the past. For both samples, I document a significant, positive relation between Tobin's q and the percentage of employee compensation that is equity based. For accounting returns, I find a positive relation with the earlier sample. However, for the later sample I find that greater use of EBC leads to lower levels of future accounting returns. I also find that the determinants of the proportion of EBC are different between the two samples.


Using the methods of correlation analysis and regression analysis,the relationship between regional water environment and tourism economic development of Anshun City in Guizhou Province from 2001 to 2007 was studied.The relationship between regional water environment and the development of tourism economy was expounded.


The optical reflectivity spectra of new superconductors (La1-xMx)2CuO4 (M=Ba, Ca, Sr) were investigated. In the spectra for the metallic samples, a plasma edge was observed at almost the same position for all compositions x and for all substituents. Based on the two-dimensional tight-binding model, the conduction band width was estimated to be about 1 eV from the value of the observed plasma energy.


By H. J. H. COLEBATCH, M. A. DEKocK, J. A. NADEL and C. R. OLSEN. Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, U.S.A. In cats anaesthetized with pentobarbitone, vagotomized, artificially ventilated and with the chest open, we observed the changes produced by embolism of one lung with BaSO4. We injected BaSO4 60-120 mg/kg into the right ventricle while the hilum of one lung was occluded for 15 sec. The surface of the unoccluded lung immediately changed from red to white for a few seconds. Within the first minute the embolized lung contracted: it became progressively smaller with a diminishing tidal expansion. After 2-10 min in eight of eighteen cats it was reduced to about one third of its original size, showed no movement, and had an irregular dimpled surface with areas of pallor. The reduction in lung size was related to the fall in lung compliance (CL). In eighLt cats with severe lung constriction CL fell 57 + 11 % (S.D.), which was significantly greater than the fall in six cats with slight or no lung constriction, 32 + 11 % (P < 0.01). The fall in CL is attributed to release of histamine in the embolized lung (Colebatch & DeKock, 1963). Lung embolism with glass beads or lycopodium spores in five cats caused no constriction of the embolized lung and CL fell 16+6 %. In two cats injected with saline there was no lung constriction and CL fell 4%. Histological studies on lungs preserved by rapid freezing with liquid-propane-nitrogen at the height of the reaction after BaS04 embolism showed constriction centred around alveolar ducts. A similar histological picture was produced by injection of histamine. The findings show that histamine, or histamine released by embolism, constricts the lung by causing contraction ofsmooth muscle in alveolar ducts.


Discovering frequent weighted itemsets(FWIs) is an important research in practical applications of field of data mining. Recently the PrePost algorithm based on the idea of N-lists has been presented. In this paper, we propose an improved version method ENSFWI(extended N-list subsume-based algorithm for finding FWIs). The subsume concept and related theorems are proposed to calculate the weighted supports of itemsets fast and generate directly FWIs without extended N-list intersection, and then an algorithm is built based on these concept for efficiently mining FWIs. It is shown by experimental results that our approach not only results in shorter execution times, but also reduces the memory usage when run on very large and dense database.


ALLEE (1942) and Allee and Collias (1940) have studied environmental and hormonal factors in relation to dominance-subordination patterns in vertebrates, and Murchison (1935a, 1935b, 1935c) and Guhl (1942), who also studied domination-subordination, used the discrifnination cage for investigating social discriminations in domestic varieties of chickens. In the experiments to be described, especial attention was given to factors which are of significance in the development of dominance in game cocks.3 The scarcity of knowledge in regard to development of dominance in this interesting and least *understood breed of chickens makes additional information about the behavior pattern highly desirable.


From the late 1990s to recent years, China has continued research on sports safety. From the point of view of literature, the research in this area consists of two parts. Part of the study analyzes and discusses the factors that influence school sports injury, although various opinions are not very uniform, but that the basic school physical injury resulting from sports injury risk objectivity, bad or poor management of school facilities, teacher or student of human factors and said integrated due to several reasons. It is worth noting that the study of this point of view, although objectively describe the current school sports injury reasons, but most of them are subjective of rational analysis, the lack of actual data to prove it.


Power production from coal combustion is one of two major anthropogenic sources of mercury emission to the atmosphere. The aim of this study is the analysis of the carbon footprint of mercury removal technologies through sorbents injection related to the removal of 1 kg of mercury from flue gases. Two sorbents, i.e., powdered activated carbon and the coke dust, were analysed. The assessment included both direct and indirect emissions related to various energy and material needs life cycle including coal mining and transport, sorbents production, transport of sorbents to the power plants, and injection into flue gases. The results show that at the average mercury concentration in processed flue gasses accounting to 28.0 µg Hg/Nm3, removal of 1 kg of mercury from flue gases required 14.925 Mg of powdered activated carbon and 33.594 Mg of coke dust, respectively. However, the whole life cycle carbon footprint for powdered activated carbon amounted to 89.548 Mg CO2-e·kg−1 Hg, whereas for coke dust this value was around three times lower and amounted to 24.452 Mg CO2-e·kg−1 Hg. Considering the relatively low price of coke dust and its lower impact on GHG emissions, it can be found as a promising alternative to commercial powdered activated carbon.


Objective To investigate the effects of propofol on neural deficit scores after cardiac arrest induced by asphyxiation in rats.Methods 20 rats were randomly divided into propofol group(n=10) and lipid group(n=10).After suffering 8 min asphyxiation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation(CPR),rats in propofol group were subjected to propofol therapy(10mg/kg intravenous bolus,then 30mg/(kg·h) infusion for one hour),while rats in lipid group were subjected to the vehicle of propofol(not containing propofol)therapy in same way.The tests of Neural Deficit Scores(NDS) were performed at 24 hours,48 hours and 7dayes after cardiopulmonary resuscitation respectively.Results There was no significant statistical difference between the two groups in NDS.Conclusion Propofol(10mg/kg intravenous bolus,then 30mg/(kg·h) infusion for one hour)can not improve the NDS.


: A prominent view holds that perception and memory are distinguished at least partly by their temporal orientation: Perception functions to represent the present, while memory functions to represent the past. Call this view perceptual presentism. This chapter critically examines perceptual presentism in light of contemporary perception science. I adduce evidence for three forms of perceptual sensitivity to the past: (i) shaping perception by past stimulus exposure, (ii) recruitment of mnemonic representations in perceptual processing, and (iii) perceptual representation of present objects as possessing past properties. I argue that forms (i) and (ii) are consistent with perceptual presentism, while form (iii) poses a genuine threat to the view. While the empirical case for form (iii) remains inconclusive, I suggest that the most serious challenges to perceptual presentism derive from representations that integrate mnemonic and present-tensed elements in the performance of canonical perceptual functions, such as perceiving object continuity over time.


We continue [Sh:h].II, studying stability theory for abstract elementary classes. In [Sh E46], Shelah obtained a non-forking relation for an AEC, (K, ), with LST -number at most λ, which is categorical in λ and λ and has less than 2 + models of cardinality λ, but at least one. This non-forking relation satisfies the main properties of the non-forking relation on stable first order theories. Here we improve this non-forking relation such that it satisfies the local character, too. Therefore it satisfies the main properties of the non-forking relation on superstable first order theories. Using results of [Sh:h].II, we conclude that the function λ → I(λ,K), which assigns to each cardinal λ, the number of models in K of cardinality λ, is not arbitrary.


Particles colliders like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) allow insights to the fundamental laws of physics. Precision calculations for scattering processes beyond the one-loop order in perturbation theory are particularly important to profit from current and upcoming high-precision measurements at the LHC and future colliders. We present various contributions to realize an automated multi-loop amplitude generator as well as its application in the context of precision calculations for hadron colliders.


An analysis is presented of several Mousterian industries of Acheulian tradition from Western Europe dated to the first half of IOS 3 and manufactured by Neanderthals before the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe. It is shown that some behaviours previously thought to be characteristic of recent behaviours associated with anatomically modern humans were in fact shared with another species. Among those are: the variability of Mousterian technologies across time and space; the use of Upper Palaeolithic methods of production immediately prior to the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe; and the long-term planning of knapping activities across the territory. This paper also demonstrates that some of these specific behaviours (the scheduling of lithic tool production within the territory) might eventually have been abandoned by Neanderthals, while others (the use of a volumetric method of producing blanks) were kept alive by them. These results show that models of the development of behavioural 'modernity' have to take into consideration every line of evidence, including the testimony of the behaviour of anatomically non-modern humans. We do not have to consider a priori that anatomically modern humans were better suited or were the only ones capable of behavioural 'modernity'. On the contrary, it is necessary to demonstrate how they were better adapted than Neanderthals. Evolutionary trajectories might be punctuated, and resulting from a combination of biological and contingent events which created a patchwork of changes. From Tools to Symbols 390 Resume Le lien causal entre la 'modernite' culturelle, synthese des changements comportementaux qui deviendront la norme a la fin du Pleistocene, et la modernite biologique doit etre discute a partir de l'ensemble des documents dont nous disposons. L'etude des comportements des Neandertaliens avant l'arrivee des hommes anatomiquement modernes en Europe, en s'appuyant sur les industries lithique MTA de la premiere moitie du stade isotopique 3, montre que des comportements d'abord juges specifiques de notre espece ont en fait ete partages avec les Neandertaliens. Elle montre egalement que certains de ces comportements, comme l'organisation a long terme de l'activite de taille dans le territoire, ont ete finalement abandonnes par les Neandertaliens, tandis que d'autres, comme l'utilisation d'une methode de taille volumetrique, ont ete conserves par les memes Neandertaliens. Nous ne devons pas a priori exclure les Neandertaliens d'une 'modernite' comportementale. Au contraire, nous devons rechercher, par une analyse comparee precise des comportements des Neandertaliens et des premiers hommes anatomiquement modernes en Europe, la nature des avantages de ce dernier groupe. L'evolution humaine pourrait bien etre ponctuee et resulter d'une combinaison d'evenements biologiques et contingents qui ont cree un patchwork de changements. Introduction By 30 000 years ago, almost all humanity had adopted a set of new behaviours generally defined as 'modern'. These behaviours are qualified as 'modern' because there is clear continuity between them and the set of behaviours of historic huntergatherers, and because of the apparent coincidence in Europe of these behavioural innovations with the expansion of anatomically modern human populations, while Neanderthals were in the process of disappearing (Klein, 2000). Behavioural modernity is a key question regarding the behavioural differences between us, anatomically modern humans, and our earlier ancestors. It is tackling the relationship between behavioural modernity and anatomical modernity (McBrearty & Brooks, 2000; Klein, 1998, 2000; Mellars, 1989, 1998). Yet, speaking of behavioural modernity certainly does not imply that behaviourally modern people have to be anatomically modern ones (see Chase & Dibble, 1990; Zilhao, 2001; d'Errico, 2003). We have to consider biological evolution and behavioural evolution separately, at least at the initial stage. At a later stage, we should progress towards interpreting the relationship between them. Then, is behavioural modernity linked to modern biology, or could it have arisen within the Neanderthal lineage? Furthermore, does it mean that 'behavioural modernity' is a dead concept if it is not specific to our species? Three main models have been proposed to reconstruct the development of behavioural modernity. After a selectively advantageous genetic mutation within anatomically modern humans (Klein, 1998, 2000), 'modern' behaviours would have developed rapidly 1. Late Mousterian lithic technology 391 and then dispersed from Africa to Asia and Europe at around 50–40 Ky BP (Klein, 1998, 2000; Ambrose, 1998). Characterised by the use of symbols and a fully elaborated language, the sudden development of behavioural modernity can be considered a 'revolution' (Klein, 1989, 1994, 1995, 2000; Mellars & Stringer, 1989; Diamond, 1992; Mellars, 1996a, b; Noble & Davidson, 1991; Bar-Yosef, 1998; Wadley, 2001; Henshilwood & Marean, 2003). Others support an earlier development of modern human behaviours (Deacon, 1989; Brooks et al., 1995; Knight et al., 1995; Barham, 1998; Watts, 1999; Henshilwood et al., 2002). The development of behavioural modernity would have been gradual, as the gradual appearance of several distinct modern behaviours between 250 Ky and 40 Ky BP demonstrates (Deacon & Deacon, 1999; McBrearty & Brooks, 2000; Deacon & Wurz, 2001; Barham, 2001). Both of these models imply that behavioural modernity arose only within anatomically modern humans. Indeed genetic and fossil evidence seems to favour a single origin – or an 'Out of Africa' model – over the continuity model for the appearance of modern humans in Europe and Asia (e.g. Stringer, 2003). The Out-of-Africa model is thought to imply that there were behavioural differences between the expanding modern humans and the indigenous population outside of Europe and Asia. This consequently suggests that European Neanderthals were not behaviourally modern – or at least less so than the incoming behaviourally modern humans. This idea must not be accepted without precise knowledge of the behavioural differences between the colonisers and the local populations. The third model has been recently put forward by d'Errico and his colleagues (d'Errico, 2003; d'Errico et al., 2003). Extensive review of available data on Neanderthal behaviours would not support the single-species origin of behavioural modernity. Neanderthals would have contributed to the development of behavioural modernity, as well as anatomically modern humans. Analyses of European Neanderthal behaviour then provides a point of comparison of the behaviour of yet another species. It aids in defining species-specific behaviours, and in testing the tempo of acquisition of new behavioural traits that became the norm after 30 Kya. This paper focuses on two of the traits defining behavioural modernity according to the synthesis made by McBrearty and Brooks (2000): technological innovativeness and planning depth. It provides data on the archaeological signature of those traits within the Mousterian of Acheulian tradition (MTA) from the south-west of France. No anatomically modern human remains have ever been found associated with this industry, only the remains of Neanderthals (Maureille & Soressi, 2000). MTA assemblages have a precise geographic location, centred on the south-west of France 2.


Governments world-wide are recognizing the importance of residential broadband in fueling economic and social growth of the nation. Unlike privately owned networks, such public networks will provide a wholesale platform on which retail service providers (RSPs) can compete to offer their services to consumers. This creates a unique opportunity to "virtualize" the wholesale access infrastructure (i.e. the fiber network) in a dynamic and agile way, allowing multiple retail service providers to share the infrastructure more efficiently, while giving users more freedom and choice in selecting their service mix. This poster presents our vision of how each party (user, wholesale infrastructure operator, and retail service provider) can benefit from this virtualization, how this virtualization can be achieved using software defined networking (SDN) techniques, and what some of the challenges in achieving this are.


The basic principle, technological method of permeating Nb of borax salt-bathing of Nb2O5 and the structure and property of permeating layer were introduced. The NbC permeating layer has high hardness, high wear resistance, anti-biting and decay-resistance, etc. Therefore, it has widely been applied in a lot of fields such as draw-extension mold, crushed mold. Also, it can largely improve the worklife of mold.


Vehicle bump arising out of uneven settlement between bridge head and abutment fill, and abutment overturning arising out of the horizontal thrust applied by the fill on abutment, are always the difficulties in highway engineering. In the test section of Tangshan-Tianjin Highway in Tianjin region,liquid flyash was used to fill the bridge-approach embankment. The study result shows that the lightweight material of liquid flyash is the good filling material for bridge-approach embankment,which comes from its advantages of high strength,light weight and free from mechanical compaction,and is demonstrated by small pressure on the abutment and small uneven settlement against the abutment.


Evaluates the effectiveness of existing suicide prevention services and programs in reducing suicide and suicide ideation in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Summary The Australian Government has recently funded the University of Western Australia (working with the Centre for Research Excellence in Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing, Telethon Kids Institute) to undertake the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project (ATSISPEP). This project will evaluate the effectiveness of existing suicide prevention services and programs in reducing suicide and suicide ideation in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The need for this comprehensive, national evaluation project is clear and urgent. Thirty years ago suicide was relatively rare among Aboriginal people. Yet according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), there were 996 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide deaths registered across Australia between 2001 and 2010 – around 100 per year for that period. And in 2012, the ABS reported 117 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths by suicide, suggesting a worsening situation over time. Overall suicide rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are significantly higher than for other Australians – with a rate ratio of 2.0 for males and 1.9 for females. Of critical concern, is that suicide rates are highest among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people aged 15-19 years (5.9 times higher for females and 4.4 times higher for males), than for other Australians in the same age group.


Purpose:
A secondary monitor unit (MU) checking algorithm was developed for flattening-filter free (FFF) photon beams. Conventional algorithms are based on the equivalent-square method to calculate the dose per MU. This is invalid because of the non-uniform profile of the FFF beam. An empirical point-spread kernel based algorithm that was previously developed was commissioned for a Varian TrueBeam FFF beam.
Methods:
Benchmark values at various
off-axis points are checked for dose per MU and compared to the algorithm-calculated values for 6 and 10 MV FFF beams. Various SSD, jaw openings, and off-axis points were measured for each energy beam. The MU calculation program is then compared to Eclipse calculations for patient plans.
Results:
It was found that the developed MU calculating algorithm can be used as a secondary MU check for FFF photon beams for the TrueBeam. The calculated dose per MU were within 2% of the measured value for various beam settings. Varian Clinac benchmark values were also compared to the calculations.
Conclusion:
This work demonstrates the successful commissioning of a secondary MU calculation algorithm for photon FFF beams at 6 and 10 MV.


Water splitting photoelectrochemical cell (PEC) was fabricated in which the electrolyzer parts were made on a single chip. This was achieved by depositing an optically transparent Mn-oxide-TiO 2 thin layer on the front of a triple junction amorphous Si photovoltaic cell which acted as the anode and the back stainless steel layer acted as the cathode under illumination of light. This single chip water electrolysis cell operates like an artificial leaf. Water splitting was observed by simply submersing the device in a basic electrolyte solution under solar simulated light of 1 sun (0.1 W cm -2 ). This self-driven PEC was found to produce hydrogen gas at the rate of 12.42 L m -2 h -1 and a solar to hydrogen efficiency (STHE) of 3.25 % from the collected H 2 gas in 2.5 M KOH solution. No signs of degradation of this single chip PEC were observed during water splitting when the device was run continuously for 6 hours.